This album, the group's third, was where they showed just how far their talents extended across the musical landscape, from blues to R&B to classical rock. In contrast to their hastily recorded debut, or its successor, done to stretch their performance and composition range,
A Salty Dog was recorded in a reasonable amount of time, giving the band a chance to fully develop their ideas. The title track is one of the finest songs ever to come from
Procol Harum and one of the best pieces of progressive rock ever heard, and a very succinct example at that at under five minutes running time -- the lyric and the music combine to form a perfect mood piece, and the performance is bold and subtle at once, in the playing and the singing, respectively. The range of sounds on the rest includes
"Juicy John Pink," a superb piece of pre-World War II-style country blues, while
"Crucifiction Lane" is a killer
Otis Redding-style soul piece, and
"Pilgrim's Progress" is a virtuoso keyboard workout. [A 2015 CD re-release added a bonus track, "Long Gone Geek."] ~ Bruce Eder
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